Thursday, March 8, 2012

not my mother's brussel sprouts

I don't know about your mother's brussel sprouts but my mother's were boiled into a bitter army-green mush. You had to eat them hot and quick to get them down. When I got a pound of them in my most recent Bountiful Basket, Hubby was trying to find ways to feed them to the chickens so he didn't have to eat them. His mother's were evidently as bad as my mother's were. It seems the women from the southeastern corner of Kansas can only cook peas, corn, and green beans.

Well I indulged my favorite past time of web cruising and came up with a couple of recipes for fixing brussel sprouts that sounded interesting. The one I fixed the other night is called Chestnuts and Brussel Sprouts. The other one I found that really interested me was Brussel Sprouts in Sour Cream. If we ever get any more this will be the next recipe I will try.

So here is the recipe with my changes.

Chestnuts and Brussel Sprouts

1 pound brussel sprouts, trimmed and cleaned (This video shows how to clean them.) 6 ounces bacon, cut in small strips (I used 8 oz.) 1 cup canned chestnuts, cut in halves or quarters (I used 5 fresh because we also got water chestnuts in our Asian pack) 2 tablespoons butter (Didn't use because you are getting fat from the bacon) Salt and pepper (only used a bit of pepper because you are getting salt from the bacon)

Cook the brussel sprouts using your favorite method. I just boiled them for about 12 minutes in salt water. Rinse and cut the sprouts in two. (Cut your sprouts before cooking according to a you-tube video I watched. It helps reduce the bitter taste if the centers are exposed to the boiling salt water. Only cook until the sprouts are just barely tender! You are going to cook them a bit more with the bacon.)

(Skip this part) Melt the butter in a skillet on medium heat. Add the bacon and cook, stirring occasionally for about 5 minutes. (I cooked the bacon until most of the fat had been rendered out. Drained most of the fat off. Left maybe 2 TBSP.) Add the brussel sprouts and chestnuts and continue cooking until the bacon is cooked through and the sprouts are slightly browned. (I cooked until my water chestnuts were lightly cooked.)Makes 4 servings.

Sister Suzy didn't like them at all. Hubby said if he had to eat a brussel sprout that was the way to eat them. I thought they were delicious. In fact, I thought they were good cold!

Side Note: Remember in the last post I said the Muse wasn't interested in doing anything fiber. Well last night She decided I should knit on my current afghan project. I feel like knitting today and the hell with scrubbing bathrooms. I believe my Muse is one fickle lady!

2 comments:

I've been trolling, err, checking out your blog list of anything that says knitting or yarn. Some fun stuff there. I'm going to pull out the sweater I'm knitting and get back on it this weekend, in between unpacking and cleaning. I'll try to post a pic.